1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to provisioning mobile communication devices for the use of general packet radio services (GPRS) and universal mobile telephone system (UMTS) networks and more particularly, to a system and method for provisioning mobile devices for companies to provide wireless email, personal information management (PIM), and other enterprise mobile data application functionality over GPRS or UMTS.
2. Related Art
Wireless communication devices must be setup or provisioned prior to activation and use in a wireless access network. Generally speaking, provisioning includes programming the mobile device with a telephone number, programming the wireless access network with the serial number and telephone number of the mobile telephone (if applicable), and/or installing application software on the device. The term provisioning also applies to the setup of handheld devices without integrated phones, such as PDAs (PocketPC, Palm, etc.) or other similar devices. Once the mobile device is programmed, the mobile device and wireless access network are able to carry telephone calls between the mobile device and a public switched telephone network (PSTN). Provisioning may also include programming the wireless network and mobile device to support one or more optional features for the mobile device, such as call forwarding, three-way calling, voice messaging, short messaging, paging, and the installation of application software on the device.
Provisioning/programming of the mobile device has largely been done on the premises of the vendor or distributor of the mobile device. A data port on the mobile device may be used to connect the mobile device to a programming system. In order to program it for use in the wireless access network, the programming system uploads provisioning data into the mobile device, such as the telephone number assigned to the mobile device. At the end of the provisioning process, the user of the mobile device may be able to make and receive calls through the wireless access network. The mobile device may also be able to access voice mail services and/or software applications that are provided by the vendor or distributor of the mobile device.
The mobile device may also be manually programmed using a keypad on the mobile device. While sound and secure, this provisioning method requires the undesirable step of programming/provisioning the mobile device before it can be delivered to a subscriber. In some circumstances, the ability to deliver a mobile device directly to a subscriber without first having to provision the mobile device provides obvious advantages.
Also, the ability to re-provision the mobile device over-the-air without returning the mobile device to a service center also has obvious advantages.
Over-the-air service provisioning approaches have been used to provision mobile devices over-the-air using the wireless access network. In this approach, the mobile device may be temporarily provisioned to allow an end-user to call a customer service center, through which long-term provisioning can be obtained for the mobile device. The service center may establish a provisioning communication link with the mobile device through the wireless access network and a mobile switching center (MSC) supporting the call. With the communication link, the mobile device may be provisioned over-the-air by wireless short message commands sent to the mobile device by using provisioning information sent by the mobile device back to the service center over the communication link.
In some business environments, a server database may be used to store data that is relevant to many employees or remote users of a business application or service. The server database may be accessible by mobile devices to increase the availability of information to the end-user. Information may be passed along to the end-user of the mobile device from the server database. The type of information that is important to each end-user may vary depending on the needs of the company for which the end-user is employed.
Remote access to data contained on the server database may be important for businesses where the end-user works out of the office or happens to be traveling. For instance, end-users may rely on the data stored in the server database to be informed about product availability, inventory data, pricing information, company events, and so forth. Instead of being connected to the server database for a long period of time, thereby accumulating telecommunication charges or tying up data lines, the end-users may only intermittently connect their mobile devices to a server for access to the server database.
The mobile devices may save a portion of the server database locally to support the remote application that is using the data, which allows the end-user to use the data even when the mobile device is not connected with the server containing the data. The intermittent connection may then be used to send changes made by the remote application to the server and a pertinent set of changes from the server to the mobile device. This type of remote computing environment may be referred to as an Intermittently Connected Database (ICDB) environment. These environments may have a variety of remote applications that may be used in sales force automation, insurance claim processing, and mobile work forces in general.
The term “database synchronization” is often used to describe the process of maintaining data consistency and integrity among server databases and client databases on the mobile device. There are several methods that may be used to provide database synchronization. In some database synchronization systems, a time stamp may be associated with the exchanged data that specifies the date of the last update exchange. The server database and the client database use the time-stamp to determine which records have been modified and therefore need updated. Other methods may use bit-maps to mark records that may have changed. Still other methods may use “before values” to track changes made to the database. Typically, only records modified since the last data exchange are sent to the mobile device.
As set forth above, there are several different methods available for provisioning mobile devices to use a mobile access network. Provisioning a large number of mobile devices may be extremely difficult and time consuming. Existing methods of provisioning mobile devices may be carried out by the carrier or a combination of the carrier and end-user. Further, there are several different methods available for synchronizing data that may be contained on a database server with a client database located on the mobile device. Setting up the applications and business services that need to be synchronized on the mobile device may also be extremely difficult and time consuming. As such, a need exists for a method and system for provisioning a large number of mobile devices for access to business services and data synchronization.